Family Ties
by Madpadz
Summary: Things are finally going in the right direction with Felicity and Oliver. When Felicity's dad shows up wanting to reconnect, however, things go awry. Turns out some family ties are better left alone.


A/N: Yeah so hi. This is my first Arrow fanfic ever. I haven't written fan fiction in like a really long time, but I love Oliver and Felicity so much and I've had so many ideas for fics that I finally got around to starting one. So you see, I'm in college but I'm the laziest person on the earth so if you guys are interested in seeing what happens from here please harass me like on the daily to finish this. I'm terrible about not finishing things, as you can see if you just take a look at my profile. My last multi-chapter story hasn't been updated since 2010. But I actually have an outline and know where this story is going so all I need is encouragement really. I would post this on ao3 also but I don't have an account on there and I'm not really sure how to go about getting one? Anyway.

So, right now this fic is gonna be rated T, but this story is not gonna be a happy thing and probably will have a lot of violence and sensitive topics so the rating might move up to M. Anyway, tell me what you think. I've never written anyone from Arrow before so this is super new to me, but the DC universe is not, so hopefully that gives me an edge.

The timeline in this story is set sometime after season 3, we're assuming that everything with the LOA has been resolved, but Oliver and Felicity still aren't together. Oliver is long back from the dead, etc., etc. Sorry about this long ass author's note and please carry on.

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><p><em>"The fear has gripped me, but here I go."<em>

_-Breezeblocks _by _Alt-J_

* * *

><p>Oliver observes through the glass walls of Felicity's office—sometimes he struggles to see it as <em>hers <em>and not his, but then again, she was always better at running the business side of things than he ever had been. As he continues to watch Felicity gesticulate her way through a phone call, he realizes that the office looks much better with her behind the desk. The whole space seems lighter.

Things had been strange between them for a while. After their disastrous first date, him continuously pushing her away, his apparent death and resurrection and everything in general being a disaster because of the League of Assassins, their relationship had been… well, _strained _was probably too loose of a term. But after coming out on the other side of all of those things, they had been quickly making their way back to normal. Unfortunately for Oliver, normal meant constant flirting, pining and being in an everlasting state of sexual frustration.

Loathed as he was to admit it, he loved every second of it. Just looking at Felicity brought him a sense of peace that he couldn't find in anyone else.

"Can I help you, sir?" Felicity's assistant brings Oliver out of his reverie. He walks over to the desk and pretends that he hadn't just been staring longingly at her through the glass for a full minute after exiting the elevator. He holds up the paper bag in his hand.

"Lunch break," he explains, pointing to the Big Belly logo. Before the assistant can buzz Felicity to let her know, she looks up and sees Oliver through the glass. Her face lights up with a brilliant smile, waving at him to come in despite still being on the phone. Oliver nods a thanks to her assistant before walking into her office.

"No, no, it's all wrong… listen, I know what Mr. Hodgson said, but frankly, Mr. Palmer thinks he's an idiot, so…" Felicity points to the couch in the corner of the office, gesturing to Oliver to put their food on the table in front of it. "Yeah… listen, I have to go. Someone just came into my office. Alright, thanks." She hangs up the phone and turns to Oliver.

"Sounds important," says Oliver, smirking as she rises from the chair to come dig through the Big Belly bag. She rolls her eyes.

"I'm the most important person around this place, you know," she jokes, grabbing the napkins from his hand. He represses the shudder that threatens when their fingers touched.

"I could've told you that."

She blushes furiously, and he can't help but grin at the fact that he can still do that to her after all this time.

They eat their burgers and talk, discussing various topics—not their late-night activities, because neither Oliver nor Felicity feels comfortable talking about it in such a public area, even if they are in her office. Felicity was always mildly worried that somehow Ray might find out that Oliver was the Arrow. After all, he was just as smart, if not smarter than she was, and it didn't take her very long to figure it out.

Of course, she doubts Oliver would ever approach Ray about fixing his laptop. Or for help of any kind. She knows Oliver hates him. He's always polite to Ray, never breaking his Oliver Queen persona, but she can tell it's strained; she knows him well enough to know when he's faking it. That, and she sometimes catches Dig rolling his eyes at Oliver's reaction when she mentions Ray.

Regardless, just because they couldn't talk about Arrow stuff, doesn't mean they couldn't talk about Roy. Oliver was talking about his dinner plans with Thea when she brings it up.

"So… do you think Roy and Thea will get back together?"

Oliver scrunches up his nose, the topic of his sister's love life clearly not of interest to him, particularly since the other half of her love life involved his young mentee. Felicity punches his arm lightly.

"Come on, you have to admit Roy's grown up a lot since he's been working with us. And you can't deny that he loves her, because he obviously does. He was heartbroken when things between them ended, and again when you…" she trails off. She didn't like to talk about the time when they thought Oliver was dead.

Roy had comforted her, despite his own feelings of loss regarding Oliver. He admitted that he had started to see Oliver as an older brother and a best friend, the prior being something he'd never had in his life before. He told her that he'd ever had anyone to look out for him and believe in him the way that Oliver did. At the time, it had made her cry even more, but now it made her feel warmth inside her chest. Oliver did more good than he would ever admit to. When she told Roy to let himself grieve instead of spending all his time making her feel better, he'd confessed that he felt it was something that he had to do, since Oliver wasn't here. That Oliver would want him to take care of her. And he did it because that way, he didn't feel so helpless about his death. He was spreading himself thin between her and Thea, who was devastated at her brother's disappearance. When Oliver returned, Roy saw less of Thea and Felicity could tell it bothered him. He deserved the love that he wanted.

She is brought back to the moment when Oliver's hand slips over hers, squeezing her fingers briefly for a moment.

"Hey," Oliver says softly, seeing where her mind went. "I'm here now."

Felicity nods quickly, taking a drink of her soda to rid the tightening in her throat. Oliver's eyes search her face for a few more moments before he removes his hand and leans back against the couch cushions.

"To answer your question, I don't know. Thea doesn't tell me what she thinks about Roy now that she knows we… hang out together downstairs after he gets off of work." He reaches for one of Felicity's fries, having finished all of his own. She slaps away his hand playfully.

"I don't know why you just don't get the large order of fries. It's not like it'll destroy your amazing body, you work out so much these days anyway, it's like you never stop…" she blushes. "I mean, not that I noticed. Because I didn't."

A laugh sneaks it's way out of Oliver as it often does after one of her rambles. It is amazingly easy for her to coax one out of him. He stopped trying to hold them back when he realized how much she would smile after he laughed. Like it was okay she had completely embarrassed herself if it made him happy for just a moment. As he watches the small smile form on her mouth, he makes a decision.

"Felicity, I know with everything being… well, crazy… we haven't really been able to talk about, well, _us_, exactly and I…" he pauses, looking at the way her eyes widen as she realizes where the conversation is going, "I know that pretty much everything is my fault, but I was stupid. And I was scared of what I felt for you… or, I was scared that I would lose you."

He scoots a little closer to her, his hand slipping into one of hers that sits in her lap.

"I want to try this with you. And I know that our last date was terrible, so maybe this time we could just… I don't know, have a night in or something." Her eyes are wide behind her glasses. She doesn't respond for a few seconds and he falters. "I mean, if you—if you would want that." He could hear his heart beating so loud in his ears with every second that passed. Could she hear it? God, when did he become such a nervous wreck around women?

Oh, right. It was only with Felicity.

His hand twitched to move away from hers, but her fingers squeeze around his to hold it in place. She lets out a big whoosh of air like she had been holding her breath the entire time.

"Yes!" she exclaims, then blushes at the volume of her voice. "I—I mean, um, yes. That would be amazing. Awesome. Yeah."

Oliver smiles widely, placing his other hand to cup the side of her face gently. She leans into his touch the same way she did the night she took a bullet for Sara. His thumb rubs the smooth skin of her cheekbone and her eyes flutter shut. He leans towards her, and—

Someone clears their throat from the doorway.

Both Felicity and Oliver jump away from one another, necks snapping towards the sound. Ray Palmer stands there, a tablet in his hand, his eyes taking in the situation before him. Oliver gets up quickly, extending his hand to greet him.

"Palmer," he says, his voice sounding lower than normal. Felicity feels desire shoot through her, but tries to play off the blush she can feel burning her face and down her neck.

"Queen," Ray replies, shaking his hand briefly. He turns to Felicity. "You said to meet in your office at 1:30 before the meeting."

Felicity looks down at her watch; indeed, it displayed that it was 1:30. How had she and Oliver taken an hour and a half lunch break?

"Oh, frack, I'm sorry." She jumps off the couch and goes to her desk. "Totally lost track of time. Wow." She fights her blush again when she sees Oliver smile smugly out of the corner of her eye; he clearly didn't mind being the reason she lost track of the time, and he wanted Ray to know that.

She gathers the files she needs from her desk, but before she grabs her tablet, Oliver interrupts her.

"I'll let you get back to it, then." He walks over to her desk, standing next to her and placing his palm on her lower back to bring her closer to him. He leans in and places a kiss on her lips. It starts as a peck, but lasts longer than either of them anticipated. His lips are soft under hers, his scruff rubbing slightly against her face and her hand automatically jumps to his arm and clutches the fabric of his shirt sleeve in her fist. When he pulls away, he's smiling lightly at her.

She blushes again when she realizes her fist is still gripping his shirt, and lets go. He pecks her lips again, briefly this time, like he can't resist tasting her again before he departs.

"I'll see you later," he tells her quietly before walking towards the door. He nods at Ray on his way out, a smug look gracing his features. She doesn't realize she's watching his retreating figure (and yeah, she'll admit it, his ass) until Ray clears his throat again.

"Ready to go?"

Felicity nods, picking up her tablet and following him out of her office. They get into the elevator to head to the executive conference room on his floor. She's still working on shoving down her residual feelings of desire from Oliver's lips on hers when Ray interrupts her thoughts.

"So… you and Queen, huh?" he says it more like a statement than a question, but the slight inflection at the end tells her he's looking for a confirmation. As if what he just witnessed wasn't enough of one.

"Ye—" her voice comes out as a squeak, so she clears her throat and starts over. "Um, yeah. Yes."

"Is this a new thing or…" he trails off and his face scrunches up. "You don't have to tell me, I'm sorry. It's not my business."

She places her hand on his bicep, and he looks down at her.

"It's okay, Ray." She brings her hand back down to her side. She thinks for a moment before she answers his question.

"No," she says with a little smile. "It's not really a new thing."

* * *

><p>"So, how are things with you and Felicity?"<p>

Oliver nearly chokes on his wine when Thea asks him the question. He puts the glass down and looks at her questioningly. She rolls her eyes in response.

"Seriously, Ollie? Roy and I do talk to each other, you know," she replies as she digs into her pasta. "He told me everything. The build-up, horrific first date, the longing looks you give her—"

"I do not look at her longingly," says Oliver. Thea just sends him a deadpan look.

"Ollie, if Roy used the word _longingly _at all, then it's probably the truth. He usually can't get past the handsome, brooding bit to say anything remotely romantic."

She says it with a tone of bitterness and Oliver tilts his head at her questioningly.

"Oh no, mister. We're not changing the subject. So, Felicity. Tell me about it," she encourages him.

"Well, we're sort of, you know," he pauses to take another sip of his wine before he tells Thea, "seeing each other."

"What?!" Thea exclaims, and several people turn to look at them at her outburst.

"Thea," Oliver hisses.

"Sorry, sorry, I just…" Thea shrugs. "Roy didn't tell me you were together! And neither did you!"

"Thea, it just happened. Like, less than 6 hours ago. I've barely talked to Felicity about it," he explains, and Thea squeals with happiness again.

"Oh, Ollie, I'm so happy for you!" she says, reaching for his hand and squeezing tightly. He can't help but smile.

"Yeah, me too."

* * *

><p>Oliver and Dig are sparring in the Foundry when Roy walks in, a ridiculous smirk on his face when he looks at Oliver. When he realizes that neither of the men are paying attention to him, he begins to talk.<p>

"So, Oliver…" he starts off, sauntering over to where the fern sits by Felicity's computers. "Anything you want to tell us?"

Oliver manages to pin Dig at the distraction, and he offers him a hand up off the ground so they can turn to Roy. He sees the look on Roy's face and rolls his eyes.

"Thea told you, didn't she?"

Roy laughs loudly.

"Yes! Finally!" he exclaims. Dig raises and eyebrow at both of them.

"Mind filling me in here?" Dig asks Roy, and Roy looks to Oliver for confirmation. Oliver nods slightly.

"Haha, yes! Felicity and Oliver! They're… dating. Dating sounds weird, you guys are too old for that…" Roy says and Oliver makes an exasperated noise.

"Felicity isn't that much older than you, Roy," says Dig, but the smile on his face shows how happy he is that Oliver's head has finally vacated from his ass when it comes to Felicity. He pats Oliver on the shoulder. "I'm happy for you, man. And I don't think we need to have a discussion about what happens to you if you hurt her again."

Oliver flinches at the 'again', but he knows it's the truth; he hurt Felicity more than once, dangling maybes. He nods at Dig, silently thanking him for being there for her when he couldn't be. They all turn to the stairs when they hear the door open, knowing Felicity herself will be the one coming down.

He smiles when he sees her reach the bottom, but it drops from his face immediately when he sees the expression on hers. She looks shocked, her skin a little paler than it would be normally. He rushes to her immediately, and before he even realizes he's moved he's standing in front of her with his hands on her shoulders.

"Felicity, what is it?" She doesn't answer right away, and it worries him. "Felicity, what's wrong?"

He steers her over to the chair in front of her computers and sits her down in it. Kneeling in front of her, he takes her face in his hands and forces her to look at him. She sighs and brings one of her hands up to his and bringing it away from her face, instead interlocking his fingers with hers.

"It's…" she swallows hard before she continues, "it's my dad."


End file.
